George Thomas, 1st Viscount Tonypandy

George Thomas, 1st Viscount Tonypandy (29 January 1909-22 September 1997) was the Labour Party MP for Cardiff West from 5 July 1945 to 13 May 1983, succeeding Ernest Bennett and preceding Stefan Terlezki. He also served as Speaker of the House of Commons from 3 February 1976 to 10 June 1983, succeeding Selwyn Lloyd and preceding Bernard Weatherill.

Biography
George Thomas was born in Port Talbot, Glamorgan, Wales on 29 January 1909, and he was raised by a single mother in Trealaw, South Wales. He worked as a teacher in both London and Cardiff before being elected the Labour Party MP for Cardiff Central in 1945, and he served as MP for Cardiff West from 1950 on. As Minister of State for Wales from 1966 to 1967, he was one of the first officials to visit the site of the Aberfan disaster in 1966, and, while he was initially sympathetic to the villagers, he refused to agree to the removal of the mining tips in 1968 until protesters dumped a sackful of slurry onto the floor of the Welsh Office, forcing Thomas to remove the tips. However, he then took £150,000 from the Aberfan charity fund to pay for the removal, and it was not until 1997 that the charity money was paid back by the government. Thomas served as Minister of State for Commonwealth Affairs from 1967 to 1968, Secretary of State for Wales from 1968 to 1970, and Speaker of the House of Commons from 1976 to 1983, when he resigned and became a lord temporal in the House of Lords. He died in 1997 at the age of 88.